(*) Its chain of transmission was cited earlier. (1) The word is pronounced with a damma on the mīm, a kasra on the khāʾ, and a quiescent hamza. It is also read with a fathah on the khāʾ together with a fathah on the hamza and a doubled khāʾ, or with the hamza quiescent and the khāʾ light. A fourth form is ākhiratu l-raḥl, with a lengthened hamza and a kasra on the khāʾ. These are four accepted pronunciations, all referring to the wooden peg at the rear of a saddle. This hadith recommends placing a sutrah (prayer screen) in front of the worshipper and shows that the minimum sutrah is the saddle’s rear-post, whose height equals roughly the thickness of the forearm bone—about two-thirds of a cubit. Qadi ʿIyad, may Allah have mercy on him, inferred from this hadith that drawing a mere line in front of the worshipper is insufficient; he said: “Although a report exists about it and Ahmad ibn Hanbal acted on it, it is weak.” Al-Nawawi cites this in Sharh Muslim and then remarks: “The hadith about the line is narrated by Abu Dawud, but it is weak and internally inconsistent.” I say: exactly as al-Nawawi stated. We have set out its weakness in detail in our critique of the book al-Taj, no. 99; see there. We also touched on it in al-Taʿliqat al-Jiyad (1:83). (2) Reported by Muslim (2:54); Abu Dawud (1:109); al-Tirmidhi (2:156–158), who declared it sound; Ibn Majah (1:301); al-Bayhaqi (2:269); and Ahmad (1:161–162) on the authority of Talhah ibn ʿUbayd Allah, raised to the Prophet. It is corroborated by a narration from ʿAishah stating that, during the Tabuk expedition, the Messenger was asked about the worshipper’s sutrah and he replied:—